Reading printed material, for example, a book or magazine can be an emotional experience. For example, a romance novel can invoke feelings of joy, happiness or longing. Similarly, a murder mystery can invoke an unsettling feeling of suspense. A movie, unlike printed material can greatly intensify an emotional experience because of its music, especially when the music matches the emotional feeling of a scene. For example, every scene from the movie Jaws may not be remembered by a moviegoer, but hearing a few bars of the theme song can instantly transport the moviegoer back to the terrifying scenes of a shark stalking its human prey. The emotional experience felt by adding music at appropriate times to match the “mood” of a movie scene cannot be duplicated by reading printed material alone. It should be noted that “mood” described herein refers to an emotional feeling experienced while watching a movie or reading printed material. Many readers listen to music while reading. Some readers listen to the music on headphones when they want to block external sounds, especially when reading at a public place. Other readers may choose to listen to music as a way of creating a relaxing reading environment. Currently, readers can listen to the music, for example from a radio station, an Internet source, or a private collection. Since the music played is random, the music rarely matches the mood of the printed material or the duration of the mood, let alone change seamlessly to a next mood, or pause playing altogether as in a movie.
With the advancement in computer technology, it is possible to read printed material in its digital format. Printed material in its digital format includes, but not limited to novels, newspapers, text-books, patent applications, manuals, reports, and the like (collectively, hereinafter “e-books”). E-books can be read on devices, including, but not limited to personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices via an e-book application. For example, the digital version of the novel The Da Vinci Code can be read on an iPad via iBooks or the digital version of a TIME magazine can be read on a Kindle via an e-book application of the same name. It should be noted that the two exemplary e-Readers and e-book applications mentioned herein are just two of other current and potentially future e-Readers and e-book applications that are equally within the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter.
Presently, even while reading an e-book, the reader has to still rely on listening to the music, for example from the radio station, the Internet source, or the private collection to enhance the reading experience. As mentioned, since the music played is random, the music rarely matches the mood of the e-book or the duration of the mood, let alone change seamlessly to a next mood, or pause playing altogether. An alleged attempt to integrate an e-book with videos from the Internet to enhance the story of the e-book is publicly known. While the attempt alleges to also connect a reader with the author of the e-book and friends of the reader through available social media, the attempt fails to match music to the mood of the e-book, play the music for the duration of the mood, or seamlessly pause or change the music with the mood.
Based on the above-described deficiencies associated with current music delivery systems and methods, or lack thereof, to enhance the reading experience of a user, there is a need for an application that chooses music to seamlessly play to match the mood of an e-book, plays the music for the duration of the mood, and pauses or changes the music with the mood. Since e-books contain more than one mood, which can repeat or change at random, the application is capable of changing the chosen music with a mood and, for example not repeating (or alternately, repeating) a same music for a same mood for the duration of the e-book to enhance different reading experiences based on the user's preference. Further, there also exists a need for a user to purchase the music chosen by the application, or purchase, for example, the theatrical score of a movie based on the e-book.